U.S. Pat. No. 4,820,170 granted Apr. 11, 1989 is directed toward a type of elastomeric electrical connector wherein conductive fibers are embedded in laminations of dielectric material. The dielectric material is itself elastomeric and the fibers are displaced transverse to the plane of the material forming the connector. Compression of the connector results in the fibers ends engaging conductive surfaces as for example, surfaces of printed circuit boards to effect an interconnection thereof. U.S. application No. 07/652,804 filed Feb. 12, 1991 details an improvement on the forgoing patent wherein circuits disposed on a substrate are connected by the patented elastomeric connector. Typically the fibers are made of carbon filaments and the elastomeric material is made of silicone rubber or material having similar characteristics. The forgoing patent and application feature an interconnection which is redundant by virtue of the numbers of fibers embedded in the elastomer and further feature electrical interfaces which are in effect sealed by the elastomer surrounding the fiber ends. Additionally, these prior art devices contain a relatively broad area of contact to be contrasted with the typical electrical interface which is depended upon a number of asperities, relatively few in number for each contact definition. These prior art devices furthermore are in essence anisotropic meaning that the connector conducts in one direction only. Typically the direction is along the length of the fibers or transverse to the thickness of the elastomeric sheet material representing the connector. An advantage of this arrangement is that contacts on close centers can be effectively interconnected to other contacts through the elastomer without adjacent contacts being shorted out.
The present application represents an improvement over the forgoing devices referred to in the patent and application and has as an object the provision of an electrical interconnection through an elastomeric connector aimed to wipe the contacts of at least one of the surfaces to be connected and to thus provide an enhanced electrical interface. It is yet a further object to provide an elastomeric connector which is positioned to seal the opening interconnector as well as sealing the actual electrical interface served by the elastomeric connector. It is still a further object to provide an elastomeric connector which seals and wipes the contacts connected by such connector through a novel placement and deformation in relation to circuits including a connector housing.